Public Statements

Fox News "Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace" - Transcript

Interview

For the third straight month, the job creation numbers have been disappointing. It's a sure sign that the U.S. is still struggling to get the economy back on track.Are voters making up their minds about the economy at this point and the presidential race?

In a few minutes, we'll talk with the chairman of the Republican National Committee Reince Priebus.

But, first, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the chair of the Democratic National Committee.

And welcome back from New Hampshire, Congresswoman. It's good to see this morning.

DEBBIE WASSERMAN SCHULTZ, CHAIR OF THE DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL COMMITTEE: Good morning.

ROBERTS: I think the headline of the day is that you just drove 2,000 miles from Florida, all the way up to New Hampshire with four dogs, the cat, and kids and the husband. How are you after all that?

SCHULTZ: And lived to tell about it. And all of the dogs were in the car. So I prove it can be done.

ROBERTS: All right. Very good.

We do have another headline, though, and that is the economy, of course. The job's number came out on Friday, 80,000 net jobs created. Is that a record that the president can run on and win reelection next November?

SCHULTZ: Well, absolutely. If you look at where we were when the president first took office, the economy was hemorrhaging 750,000 jobs a month. And now, after President Obama's policies in place for the last three and a half years, we've had 28 straight months of job growth in the private sector, 4.4 million jobs created. The progress that we are making is moving us forward.

We need to continue to make more progress obviously and, you know, we haven't far enough. But we need to keep pressing forward and continue to focus on middle class tax breaks and making sure that we can create jobs and make sure that we get economy moving forward and great if Republicans would join us in that effort. But, you know, President Obama is focused on making sure, as he singles out like a laser, getting jobs created and our economy turned around with or without help from the Republicans.

ROBERTS: You know, the number of jobs that have been created brings you about 50 percent of the way back to where we were in 2007. Let's break down the numbers, so take a look.

The national unemployment rate is 8.2 percent. But if you look at the overall number, which includes people who stopped looking and those who are underemployed, it's 14.9 percent. And look at this, African-American unemployment up to 14.4 percent. That's up almost full point. Eleven percent for Hispanics.

If the president hopes to win, Congresswoman, in November, he's going to need a very motivated minority population out there. Are African-American and Hispanics going to look at those numbers and say, there's a person I really want to vote for. Not that they will go over to the Republican side, but maybe they might just stay home?

SCHULTZ: Well, as I travel the country, I've seen tremendous enthusiasm from African-Americans, as well as Hispanic-Americans. And I think, if you look at the same point, John, where we were in the recovery from 2001 recession under President Bush and where we are in the recovery now, we're actually 2 million jobs ahead at the same point in both recoveries.

So, while we have a long way to go, we have made progress and President Obama has been committed to not just getting the economy turned around and creating jobs, but closing the achievement gap in education for Hispanics and African-Americans, investing in education and innovation, and making sure that we can keep folks in their homes.

And if you compare that to Mitt Romney's focus, which was, let's let Detroit go bankrupt and not rescue the American automobile industry, African-Americans have been devastated by that in particular. More than a million jobs would have been lost.

When it comes to policies like immigration reform, Mitt Romney is the most extreme presidential candidate on immigration policy and that is why there is a 40-point deficit between him and President Obama among Hispanic-Americans because when it comes to the policies that those two groups care about, but really when it comes to the policies that Americans care about, this is not politics, John. This is important for the lives of the Americans and we need to all be fighting to move the economy forward like President Obama has been doing.

ROBERTS: You know, on the wake of the jobs numbers on Friday, one of the campaign senior advisors, David Plouffe, said that the job numbers were, quote, "what everybody expected."

Which drew this response from the Romney campaign, "One month after declaring the private sector is, quote, 'doing fine,' the Obama White House has doubled down, calling the struggling economy what everybody expected as a step in the right direction. With millions of Americans facing what even Vice President Biden called a depression, it's clear that President Obama is simply out of touch with the difficulties facing middle class families."

Do you think people who are at home, Congresswoman, who are sitting around the kitchen table at the house desperately looking for a job, look at those job numbers on Friday and said, well, it was what was expected?

SCHULTZ: Well, I think like President Obama, everyone acknowledges that we have a long way to go. We have made significant progress, 28 straight months of job growth in the private sector and more than 4.4 million jobs created. But, you know, what we certainly don't need to do and I think folks at home are sitting and listening to Mitt Romney say, we should go back -- the answer is let's go back to the failed policies of the past. Let's repeat the same playbook that got us into this economic mess in the first place.

ROBERTS: Well --

SCHULTZ: Mitt Romney's budget would actually make sure that the wealthiest, most fortunate Americans get more and more tax breaks.

ROBERTS: But --

SCHULTZ: And again, another incentives to send jobs overseas. President Obama is focusing on in-sourcing, incentivizing companies to bring jobs back here in the United States. So, that's what Americans' reaction to what Mitt Romney say about the economy and our recovery.

ROBERTS: So, then is the suggestion that we should just keep doing the same thing? You know, there's that old definition of doing the same thing over and over again, expecting a different result.

ROBERTS: Are you happy about 80,000 jobs last month and 69,000 the month before that? Are you happy with those numbers?

SCHULTZ: Like I've said -- we -- and President Obama has said, we continue -- we need to continue to improve and we need to do more and we need to work together. But I am pleased that the manufacturing has had a resurgence and created 500,000 jobs in the last 28 months. That the automobile industry which Mitt Romney would have allowed to go bankrupt is still here in the United States. And that all three automakers have actually had record increases in job creation. They had a record June -- a month of June, 7,000 auto jobs created. We've -- we have begun to move in the right direction. But we need to focus on middle class tax breaks on the 18 -- on policies like the 18 different tax breaks that President Obama has signed into law for small business owners by making sure that we can continue to make investments in education and innovation and incentivizing people to remain in their homes.

Where Mitt Romney would -- by embracing the Romney-Ryan budge, would actually make sure that the wealthiest, most fortunate Americans get more and better tax breaks, that we would end Medicare as we know it, that we would blow more of a hole in our deficits than they already exists now.

So, we need to look at the two paths and the two visions. That are being laid before Americans. President Obama's vision and path which would moving us forward and Mitt Romney which would drag us back to the policies that us got into this mess in the first place.

ROBERTS: You mentioned manufacturing jobs and I think that bears looking at a little more closely, 11,000 jobs were created in the month of June in manufacturing.

But take a look at this. Still, there is a net loss even though you come back somewhat. There's a net loss of 590,000 manufacturing jobs across the country. In the battleground states of Ohio and Pennsylvania, Ohio was 17,900 behind, Pennsylvania 43,500 behind.

So, even though you are touting some increase, you're still a ways to go.

SCHULTZ: Well, of course there's ways to go. But look at --

ROBERTS: And manufacturing contracted in the last three months.

SCHULTZ: In Ohio, 80 of 82 counties in Ohio actually have an auto manufacturing facility. So, if it was left to Mitt Romney, they essentially would all have gone out of business because he would have left those folks twisting in the wind. The entire supply chain of 1.4 jobs would have been gone in America, and the investments that we have been able to make in trying to get the economy turned around and moving our economy forward that President Obama has committed to has helped us make progress.

If it were left to Mitt Romney and let's look at how Mitt Romney's private sector policy when applied in the public sector did for Massachusetts. Massachusetts was 47th out of 50 in job when he was governor. They actually lost manufacturing jobs at twice the national rate.

So, his record that he touts is not so successful. It's not something to be brought on the national stage.

ROBERTS: We are just out of time. But just on that last point, it's true, on average, he was 47th out of 50th. But he was 50th when he came in office, 28th when he left office. So, there was a definite improvement there.And if we can put up a graph over job loss and creation over President Obama's 3 1/2 years, he was suffering massive job loss in the first part of his term, got up there to some pretty positive numbers about half-way through and has been kind of middling since.

ROBERTS: So, would you want him to be known over the average? Because that could look unfortunate, too.

SCHULTZ: Actually, we are at a point now where we are in a net positive in jobs, in private sector jobs from when President Obama office took office, if you compare that to when President Bush left office, he was net negative. So, we are continuing to move in the right direction.

But, John, I want to raise another point that I hope folks would --

ROBERTS: Quickly --

SCHULTZ: Sure. You know, I'd really like to see Mitt Romney release more than one year of tax records, because there's been disturbing reports recently that he's got a Bermuda corporation, a secretive Bermuda corporation that no one knows anything about, investments in the Caymans, kind of Swiss bank account. Why -- Americans need to ask themselves why does an American businessman need a Swiss bank account and secretive investments like that? Just something, a thought that I'd like to live folks with.

ROBERTS: All right. And if I could, finish off and leave folks in this segment with something that we got from the Romney late last night about those offshore investments.

This comes from Romney spokesman Kevin Madden who says, "He hasn't paid a penny less in taxes by virtue of where these funds are domiciled" -- talking about this Bermuda and Cayman Islands accounts. "His liability is exactly the same as if he held them directly in the U.S. As a U.S. citizen, he is accountable for U.S. taxes. Some investments in foreign countries can be tax havens. But Mitt Romney does not hold any such investments."

Congresswoman Wasserman Schultz, we got to run. But thanks for joining us. We really appreciate it.